Jennifer Levi is bringing some of the West Coast back to her hometown in Edwardsville with the newly opened Café Birdie. Jennifer and her husband, David Levi, grew up in the St. Louis area. The couple relocated to a Seattle farm with a studio on the property to accommodate David’s glassblowing career. Jennifer spent more than two decades working in kitchens from Seattle to northern California, managing cafés and experimenting with new flavors in the midst of the Northwest’s rich and diverse food culture.
During her time there, she began dreaming of owning a café of her own. Her favorite one – a low-key café on a California beach situated near an old lifeguard tower – stuck out in her mind. “It was just the best: burgers and fries and ice cream with frozen Margaritas, the sound of the waves crashing and a bar to help yourself to housemade pickles and relishes,” she says.
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It was the kind of fresh, open vibe she wanted in a café of her own. “I got a taste for California cuisine and how to make fresh, clean food,” Jennifer says. “Most of it was so fresh, grown there in California – not just the heavy meats and potatoes we get in the Midwest, but vegetables and grains.” When they returned to the metro east to be near family, Jennifer thought often about a café right up until she saw that an Edwardsville tearoom was closing.
“Hannah, our daughter, said ‘Stop talking about it, let’s do it,’” David says. “She’s the organized one, a lot smarter about the business world than we are.”
Café Birdie became a family project, with the Levis’ two sons helping with the kitchen and tweaking the recipes, and also doing some metalworking for the décor. “It’s really a family business, which is what we’ve always wanted,” Jennifer says. Though the couple had anticipated the potential staffing difficulties common to the industry, they had no trouble finding eager workers in the college town.
The menu ranges from soups, salads and sandwiches to sliders and sangrias, with all pastries baked in-house. Every inch of the menu is inspired by whatever Jennifer is currently experimenting with. “One of my favorite things is vanilla ice cream with olive oil and salt,” Jennifer says. “It sounds really weird, but people just rave about it.”
Brunch biscuits are accompanied by salmon, sausage and eggs. Other options include avocado toast or tomato confit on a grilled baguette.
At lunch, their chicken salad is served on fresh ciabatta or in a salad, and other sandwiches include steak and poblano peppers, grilled chicken with kale and roasted portabello mushrooms and bell peppers with sautéed onions. Sandwiches are accompanied by sweet potato fries, tater tots or a house side salad of greens tossed in a Champagne vinaigrette, and the entrée salads include a soba noodle salad tossed with a zesty dressing and Southwest quinoa salad with a cilantro lime vinaigrette.
Kombucha is served on tap, with flights of various flavors that lure in even the anti-kombucha crowd, according to Jennifer.
One of the signature offerings is the Birdie Cake: a rich vegan pastry with a muffin-like texture and bananas and pineapple that Jennifer describes as “sugary and delicious.” There’s also a number of vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free offerings, with a constantly changing menu. “If I’m in the mood to make a strata, I’ll make a strata,” Jennifer says. “There’s always something new, changing things every day.”
The atmosphere is light and airy, with white walls and birch furniture, and décor featuring older maps. There is both indoor and outdoor seating, and the pastry case ranges from the usual muffins and scones to chocolate croissants and mini blueberry coffeecakes. Beverages run the gamut from standard drip coffee to Mimosas, Bloody Marys and wine, root beer floats and a variety of teas.
The key is to find the stride of the community, David notes, and so far Café Birdie seems to be doing well, which he ascribes to “the difference between food being made right here as opposed to generic premade bags just heated up,” noting that there have been a lot of regulars coming in and the buzz is growing online. “It’s been much busier than I expected from the get-go,” Jennifer says. “It’s been such a supportive community; we’re thrilled that it’s going so well.”
And who is the “Birdie” of the café’s name? That would be Hannah’s dog.
Café Birdie is open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays.
Café Birdie, 120 S. Main St., Edwardsville, Illinois, cafebirdie.co.